We’ve all wanted to beat procrastination. Don’t we?
You have this fascinating idea – a bulb of insight, dazzling light of hope.
You know it will add a sparkle to your small business.
So, you spend the whole evening planning, visualizing, and laying strategies.
Out of exhaustion, you put it to rest for tomorrow – at least you’ll be fresh to reimburse it.
Still, a day, a week, a month, a year, and yet, you are at ground zero.
There is nothing to show. No progress. You’re stuck.
What happened?
You Planted Seeds of Procrastination.
Did you miss something?
Your mind responds, “not really.” So, you jot down a few notes to reclarify your ideas and targets hoping for the best.
But that thing… that feeling… Arrrggg, the urge can’t stop.
At this stage, procrastination is busy planting it’s evil seeds in your mind.
It keeps nudging you and whispering; please wait, just give it a little longer, or simply forget about the plan – it’s not within your reach.
Before you know it, you hit the wall again.
Then you start doubting everything about yourself. Your insight. Your briefs. Your motivation.
Eventually, you became tired.
However, your instinct begs you to finish the blog post, write a business plan (probably, how to start a fruit parlor business), or even research how to start a new blog.
Meanwhile, you leave the idea to sizzle a little bit longer. Maybe, something magic will come in your dreams as you preoccupy youself with other life events.
Justification Phase: The Bunch of Responsibilities
In this state, your mind goes to its cooking pot to cook some meaningful bunches of responsibilities. I call them the more pressing issues. It is also that stage where Photoparalysis hit you harder with justifications like:
- My family needs support both financial and moral support.
- My business(es) needs to keep running and make the profit.
- My friends need my support in times of need and happiness.
- And the world? It expects me to be up to date or risk being irrelevant.
And the list goes of, my … needs that, goes on…
But here is the truth.
You see all these meaningful stuff, they are just but a reason to derail your dreams. Unfortunetely when they come as procrastination, their venom is so high beyond the venomous White Snakeroot (Ageratina altissima) plant that killed Nancy Hanks, Abrahan Lincoln’s mother.
Meaning, you either learn how to beat procrastination by monitoring and silencing it, or you will succumb to its toxins.
Procrastination Toxics Are like Biblical Foxes: They Can Easily Man-Slaughter Your Dreams.
Procrastination starts as teeny seedlings. When you continue to water and feed them with the right ingredients, they grow to be a deep-rooted colossal of a forest. They resemble tiny biblical foxes. They eat-up, run-over, and destroy everything in your vision-garden. In short, they leave you drained and exhausted, mostly, without plants to weed or even harvest. Everything under this forest is either malnourished or dying.
For instance, in your business, a little hesitance in opening that Facebook group or website you’ve been dying to open, can be translated to a tremendous loss of potential clients. A lost deal. A lost profit. A malnourished start-up.
Even worse, if you allow procrastination to be chronic enough, you are risking creating mountains of undone.
Meaning, your mental health will be intoxicated, leaving your life in disarray. Lacking clarity, confused and choked under pressure of deadlines.
Unfortunately, despite destroying your health state and your struggling business, it also siphons the life out of your family, friends, and all your relationships. It will brutally kill every hope of life-treasure you might have hidden for yourself.
Fortunately…
You can Beat Procrastination by ProcraDesigning it.
But before we dive further in this article, you need to accept the reality. You have to stop convincing yourself, “I got this.” The reality is, you got nothing. Sh*t is getting out of hand.
On the other hand, you might be wondering, am I normal to keep on procrastinating?
Of course, you are.
It’s just that, procrastination was hardcoded in our DNA. It’s not an abnormality. It’s human. It’s that aspect you need to be aware of.
Therefore, all you ever need is to learn how to detoxify yourself with the right dose. And you will elude, lull, and tame it.
But first.
What is ProcraDesign Technique?
ProcraDesign Technique aims at redesigning your vision by holding your hand steadily as it guides you through a journey of self-rediscovery to reconnect with your lost goals and hidden powers locked within you.
On this journey, you’ll learn technics of setting actionable goals, setting daily rituals, embracing adversity, appreciating small-little things, and the importance of surrounding yourself with healthy relationships and environs.
Why?
In building a start-up business, you’ll frequently face immense tribulations, sometimes, they come in the form of procrastination. So, to overcome such a situation, you must have a strong emotional connection with your dream or you’ll collapse out of exhaustion.
Meaning, your own dream of making the world a better place will be cut short. I don’t want that to happen to you, neither should you, right?
Well, let’s get started.
Step #1:
Reclaim Your Vision Back
Sometimes you don’t want to do anything about that idea or abide in those rules of building a solid business startup. You simply have an urge to rest it for a while.
Sadly, you can’t trick the urge to vanish and leave you in peace.
Unfortunately, the longer you wait, all the visions, the goals, and the dreams you cherished and vividly shared, for an unknown reason, they turn to be a far cry. A line on the horizon dwindling too fast then you can catch up.
And to make it worse, you feel lost, heartbroken, and alone.
You know the eerie feeling, the kind that scares your wits. The scary Photoparalysis effect.
However, don’t despair.
It’s okay.
Just…
“Never underestimate the power of dreams and the influence of the human spirit. We all the same in this notion: The potential of greatness leaves within each of us.”
—Wilma Glodean Rudolph
In other words, if you acknowledge you are undergoing all these mixed feelings, your body craves to regain the mantle and become the captain again and steer its ship in the right direction.
But how?
Start by Identifying Your Priorities
To start the journey, you need to set goals for your life. These goals, will give you a sense of direction and purpose. Eventually, you’ll begin to live a life with a meaning.
How to reconnect with your dreams the right way and get your priorities straight once.
- Begin by outlining the top-3 priorities (goals) of your life (make an exhaustive list and narrow down to three)
- Follow with smaller goals that support your bigger goal.
- Don’t just stop there, go ahead and outline the necessary path you need to follow to attain each goal. That is, a list of all resources and efforts you MUST need to achieve each goal.
- Then, follow with listing every objection you might face on the way
- Complete with the ifs (the pressure points):
- The results if you are successful.
- The pain if you fail to take any action (that is, your walk of shame). The pain should be your drive to work the goals out.
Once done, you need to make them a ritual, a de facto. Your breakfast. Your lunch. Your supper. Meaning, you must make a habit to review and reflect on them regularly. I recommend, right before you sleep and immediately after you wake up.
These rituals will make you breathe, dream, and eventually proclaim your lost vision.
However, you need small victories on the way to keep the candle burning.
Step #2:
Nurture Small Victories – They Breathe Life to Your Motivation
Still with me?
Well, clarify your focus with small wins in the form of a to-do list.
Let me explain.
When you break your goals into bite-sized steps, you are making your system (body, mind, conscious) aware of its purpose. And once you complete your first milestone successfully, your mind will feel rejuvenated. It will want to have more of this feeling of success. In fact, it will become your second nature once you commit to it regularly. In other words, it will be another form of reflexology.
But let me caution you.
Of course, it won’t be a smooth ride down the hill. It will be bumpy. Therefore, fasten your belt; put on the iron hat of willingness, commitment, and make it right – the main reason for developing morning and evening habits. Habits that the great Aristotle called repetition for excellence.
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.”
—Aristotle
But how can you be accountable?
But how can you build a reliable system?
But how can you reach Aristotle excellency?
Thanks to comedian Bob Schieffer’s reward system. His philosophy is simple, straight, and stupid enough to allow you develop a clear path to excellence by forming consistent habits.
Here is how to apply the Bob Schieffer’s reward system.
- Get yourself a big calendar.
- Then, stick it somewhere on the wall where you can see it in the morning when you wake and, in the evening, before you go to bed.
- Every day you work towards those big three goals, add a big ‘red’ mark (X) on it. Continue adding it the next day, every day, down the month, until you build a continuous chain of Xs and formation of consistent habits.
Just don’t break it. I bet every time you look at its trail, you will envy your success. Indeed, the next month you will want to accumulate more X’s sliding down the whole year and forever.
With this tool, you’ll accomplish your goals and become more productive, and build a substantial equity. You will even have more time doing what you genuinely care.
Meanwhile, you must learn to acknowledge and embrace your adversities.
Step #3:
With Love, Embrace Your Adversity
Imagine you’ve just visited your physical therapist. She places her hand on your shoulder, looks you at the dead-centre of your eyes. With a hesitant dry whisper, almost with a quiver, yet, soft and steady. She let it go, “you can’t continue this way, you are overweight.” With a sad almost grieving gesture, she hands you a note of prescriptions and a few books with dieting suggestions and a gym recommendation.
How will you react?
Will you think about the time you’ll spend in the gym at the expense of making more money? Will the muscles soreness scare you? Will you feel sorry for yourself and just let it be?
Of course, not.
You will want to face your overweight challenge. You’ll want to deal with your overgrown belly. You’ll want your latest outfits to fit you again. You’ll fight the feeling of discomfort, frostiness, and cheesiness. You’ll want to eradicate the possibility of facing the dreaded CVD’s (cardiovascular diseases) like high blood pressure, Diabetes, Osteoarthritis, and more.
Naturally, you’ll take the challenge and make it your strength. You’ll see the possibilities to regain the shape and eat healthy again.
“If we cannot see the possibilities of greatness how can we dream it?”
—Lee Strasberg
So, how do you beat procrastination by embracing you adversity?
Admittedly, every goal has its challenge. Therefore, you must acknowledge those adversities. Make sure you’ve detailed them. Both internal and external. Then counter each challenge with your might. You must also master your inner strength that is hidden beneath you. Master it and make it your arsenal.
Don’t just wait for surprises in your devices to backfire in your face. Be proactive, by overcome your adversity early enough.
However, to achieve substantial progress, quick-fix-solution will be jaw-dropping, patience instead, will earn you respect. Those little-chameleon-steps will take you far.
Step #4:
Chameleon’s Little Steps: That’s All Matters For Incremental Growth
Have you ever had a rare chance to observed a chameleon in action?
It’s fascinating.
It takes its steps one at a time – no hurry. It will lay low, carefully and with precision, closely match its environs colour. There it will wait with patience. And when the right time comes, it will strike hard at its dinner as if it was not there in the first place. Even better, its pace and disguise, outsmart spotters like hornbills leaving her to hunt another day.
In this case, the gem is hidden in chameleon’s meticulous patience and little yet amusing steps; what I call little-candy-steps you must learn to adapt.
How to Embracing Little steps.
Set to satisfy one goal at a time.
Plan to prioritize some goals more than others.
Finish your number one goal first. When done, move on to the next one. Just one step at a time till you reach your target.
You don’t have to sweat it, cram everything at once. It’s enough to light one candle first. The rest will light without taking anything from the one that lit them.
The bottom line, don’t do many things at once, you stand a chance of getting overwhelmed.
But if you are still feeling like there are tiny rocks in your shoes causing all sort of discomforts, I suggest you start to re-evaluate your relationships.
Step #5:
Surround Yourself with Healthy Relationships
Yep, surround yourself with healthy relationships.
Why?
“Surround yourself with the dreamers and the doers, the believers, and the thinkers, but most of all surround yourself with those who seek greatness within you even when you don’t see it yourself.”
—Edmund Lee
According to Lee, vet and re-evaluate every person in your life, most likely those close to you, and have a direct influence in your life.
And if there is someone who sucks breath out of you, just delete them from your favourite list. Slowly avoid their company. Forget they ever existed. Move on to find mentors, doers, and shakers. People who can positively impact your life.
So, surround yourself with winners:
A family member who can remind you to keep your promises.
A friend who can remind you you are losing track of time.
A workmate who can remind you of your purpose.
Someone who sees nothing but potential in you.
These are people you can look upon with a sense of admiration, trust, and reliance. People who will rarely fail you, neither mislead you.
And don’t just stop there either. Create a bond with your environment. That is, declutter it.
Have a clean working desk. Tidy your bed first thing in the morning. Put everything where it is supposed to be.
Eventually, these obscure improvements will bring a sense of tranquillity, unity, and flow. You’ll have space, and you’ll be productive.
Therefore,
You Can Beat Procrastination: Get Out of Your Head and Get into The Action Zone.
Whether you are a mature business owner, a newbie or a wannabe. Procrastination simply kills your productivity, your dreams, and your future.
It’s merciless, and it doesn’t care. It doesn’t know your gender or your social status. It wants it all for itself.
However, with the 5 ProcraDesign techniques in your able hands, you can’t afford to despair or harken to procrastination vices. It’s like you’ve been handed super powers to beat procrastination at every battle.
So, focus, plan, and persist. Stick to your dreams until the end. And don’t accept to put any idea aside for any limitation.
Not for money. Not for education. Not for time.
Just close your ears, open your heart, and “Just Do It.”
Have an enchanting Biashara Talking ?.
